were eight of us children and I was elder than all of them with one exception.  Our owner was Mrs. Favors, but she was known to everybody as the “Widow Favors.”  My father was owned by a Mr. Darden who had a plantation in this same county.  When the “Widow’s” husband died he left her about one-hundred acres of land and a large sum of money and so she was considered as being rich.  She didn’t have many slaves of her own and so her son (also a plantation owner) used to send some of his slaves over occasionally to help cultivate her crops, which consisted of cotton, corn, and all kinds of vegetables.”

In regard to her treatment of the slaves that she held Mr. Favors says:  “She wasn’t so tight and then she was pretty tight too.”

Those slaves who were field hands were in the field and at work by the time it was light enough to see.  They plowed, hoed, and then later in the season gathered the crops.  After the harvesting was over the fences were repaired and rails were split.  In rainy weather nobody had to work out of doors, instead they shelled the peas and corn and sometimes ginned the cotton.  At night the women were required to spin and to weave.  In the winter season no work was required at night unless they had not spun as much thread as was required.  At such times they had to work at night until the amount set had been reached.

Mr. Favor’s mother was the cook for the “Widow Favors” and her two neices who lived with her.  The Favors had paid the owner of a hotel Four hundred dollars to have the hotel cook teach her (Mr. Favors mother) to prepare all kinds of fancy dishes.  His father was a field hand on the Darden plantation.  In addition to this he repaired all the shoes when this was necessary.

As a child Mr. Favors was not very strong physically and because of this the “Widow” made him her pet.  He never had to do any work other than that of waiting on the mistress while she ate her meals.  Even in this he had to get up at four o’clock in the morning and help his mother in the kitchen.  Sometimes he would sweep the yards if he felt like doing so.  When he grew older he was given the task of picking the seed out of the cotton at night.

On Sundays all the servants were free to do as they pleased, that is, with the exception of Mr. Favors, his mother, and the two women who serve as maids to the “Widow’s” two neices.  At other times if a task was done before the day was over with they were given the remaining time to do as they pleased.  However, everybody had a one week holiday at Christmas.

Mr. Favors made the following statement in regard to the clothing:  “Everybody wore the homespun cotton clothes that were made on the plantation by the slave women.  The women wore striped ausenberg dresses while the men wore ausenberg pants and shirts that had been made into one garment.  My clothes were always better than the other little fellows, who ran around in their shirttails because I was always